All right everyone we have reached the last prompt of the week. The coffee is brewing and this short sentence can go anywhere. Let’s see where it leads.
Huh. I wasn’t expecting it to lead there, but who doesn’t love a good break up story. I may pull thinks apart and add more in. But I kinda dig it.
Friday, March 22nd: Maria laughed.
Maria laughed. She couldn’t help it. He stood there, so earnestly believing his own lies that she just couldn’t help herself and laughed. He did not take it well. She saw the dark look flit across his face. It was the look he gave anyone who didn’t automatically succumb to his stories. He was accustomed to being believed, trusted.
She wondered if she was the only one who realized the full extent of how much he shouldn’t be trusted. As she doubted anyone would listen to her, especially not now, she dismissed the thought. They would find out on their own.
The dark look lifted from Michael’s face as a thought occurred to him. He shifted his expression to one of sadness as he nodded. She could almost hear the narrative he told himself shifting in his mid as he did. He would no doubt change the story to suit what he wanted to believe, what he wanted to tell others.
“You are shocked,” he said. Michael nodded t his own assessment, the theory already taking root as fact. “But I tell you I am serious. We are through and I really do think this will be the best thing for you.”
Maria sighed and let the smile fall from her face, the laughter from her voice. It was the end and she found all she wanted was Micael to be gone.
“I know,” she said. “I was surprised. But you are right. It is for the best. I wish you well,” she said. He blinked in surprise but quickly incorporated her comments into his storyline.
“I am so glad we could part as friends,” he said.
Maria smiled. She watched as he turned around and walked out of the door and into the hall. She stood still and listened to the sound of the front door opening and closing. She stayed there as she listened to the sound of his car engine turn over. Through the window she could see his car back out of the drive. She could even see him behind the wheel. He was smiling broadly, pleased she hadn’t made a scene, hadn’t made things sticky for him.
Maria pulled her cell phone out of her back pocket. She pulled up one of the numbers she added just that morning. She pressed the needed buttons and held the phone to her ear as it began to ring. The phone was answered.
“Yes,” she said to the clerk as he asked what she needed. ‘I need to arrange to have my locks changed.” A quick check of the system found a cancellation. Someone could be sent over in less than twenty minutes. She agreed, paid in advance and ended the call. She pulled up another number and arranged for movers to come and pick up several boxes. Once scheduled, Maria tucked her phone in her pocket again and went upstairs.
She and Michael had been living together for the better part of two years. Still it had taken surprisingly little time to extract him from her home. The past two days he claimed to be on a work trip but was instead away on a short holiday with the woman he was cheating on her with.
‘Or one of them at least.’ An investigation revealed several others and Maria decided she was through completely. Since she knew the name of the one most frequented and the one he spent the past two days with, that was the address Maria put on the boxes in which she packed his things. They were ready when the movers arrived and she was happy to see them go. With the locks changed, his boxes gone and all of the information for her bank accounts changed, she wondered how he would take the next few days.
Ten til Midnight 